An altar of earth you shall make for me and sacrifice on it your burnt offerings and peace offerings … Ex. 20:24
We leave the people standing far off and follow Moses up the mountain through the thick darkness, into the presence of God, to hear His will for His people. What follows is a body of legislation referred to as the “Book of the Covenant” (sēper habberît Ex. 24:7), or, the “Covenant Code” (Chapters 20:21-23:33). It begins with an introductory section with regulations about sacrifice and worship (20:21-26), followed by a whole set of ordinances. The first part is predominated by “case laws” (casuistic), examples that can be applied by the Israelites to concrete situations as they live out their lives together in covenant under YHWH (21:1-22:17). The second half is predominately made up of “command laws” (apodictic). Again we see that narrative and law weave in and out together creating a united fabric of history and revealed law. Abstract law outside of the covenantal narrative of promise and deliverance means nothing to the Israelites, and their narrative means nothing apart from the revelation of law.
Everything begins with proper worship of YHWH (20:21-26). We have already seen with Abraham that the ultimate act of worship is, by definition, sacrifice, an idea they shared with the pagans around them. However, the way they conceive of sacred space and its liturgy must be categorically different. To begin with, the first commandment is evoked; there must be no images of silver or gold. This law is specifically tied to the context here of sacred space. They must not be like the pagans. Whether the pagans believed their images were actual gods, or representative of their gods, doesn’t matter. Deity is reduced to something they can own and manipulate by magical ritual. In contrast, worship and sacrifice is done before the Transcendent God who cannot be reduced to an object that can be owned or manipulated. Such worship demands trust necessitated by the covenant and demonstrated by their ancestors, especially Abraham.
The following laws of the altar must be understood in the context of where the narrative locates Israel, at Mount Sinai. Though Sinai is referred to as “the Mountain of God,” YHWH is not restricted to this mountain, and indeed, by the end of the Book of Exodus, transfers His presence from this mountain to the newly made tabernacle. As the people journey, YHWH directs where they must build an altar (Heb. kol hammāqōm, trans., In every place where I cause my name to be remembered I will come and bless you, 20:24). YHWH is not a territorial spirit like the pagan gods, but at this stage of revelation, He travels with His people.
The altar must be simple, made of earth and unhewn stones, reflecting the non-stationary nature of semi-nomadic movement. Again, this is in contrast to the elaborate carved stones of pagan worship. Indeed, wielding a hammer and chisel “profanes” the natural shape of the stones, suggesting the affinity between the Creator-God YHWH with the natural. Although Solomon’s Temple was built according to Phoenician style with hewn stones, they were prepared to exact measurement at the quarry, and silently laid in place at the temple, so that there was no sound of hammer and chisel in the sacred space (I Kings 6:7). There is an overall reticence in Scripture about sacred space being made by “human hands.” This is because elaborate altars and temples made of stone give the impression that they are eternal, and therefore deceive the worshipper into believing that YHWH is eternally bound to the space itself (Jeremiah 7). For Paterius, the sixth century bishop of Brescia, and compiler of St. Gregory’s works, the earthen altar speaks of the humility of the Incarnation:
To make an altar of earth for the Lord is to place our hope in the incarnation of the Mediator. Our gift is accepted by God when, on this altar, our humility rests whatever it does upon faith in the Lord’s incarnation. We place the gift we offer on an altar made of earth if we base all our actions on faith in the Lord’s incarnation.
Exposition of the Old and New Testament, Exodus 30.
Finally, there were to be no steps approaching the altar. This prohibition is tied to the absolute necessity of modesty in worship, specifically, the exposing of nakedness in the liturgy. Here we clearly see how the Israelites were to distance themselves from the pagan practices such as we find in ancient Sumer, where priests in some instances officiated in the nude, in Egypt, where the priests and the Pharaoh officiated in slight, revealing shenti kilts, and in the customs of the Canaanite fertility cults. Nudity and sexuality was good in its proper place in Israel, but as we discussed in The Nakedness Motif and the Fall, it must be expressed within tight boundaries, and is totally out of place before YHWH in worship. For the pagans, sexuality was magical, and essentially linked to religious ritual.
Takeaway: This “Book of the Covenant” begins with laws concerning sacrifice and sacred space that explicitly separate the Hebrews from pagan worship.
Question: 1) How relevant are these laws to you and your concept of worship? Explain!
Resources:
ACCS, p. 110
Cassuto, U. A Commentary on the Book of Exodus, pp. 255ff.
Durham, J. Exodus, in WBC, vol. III, pp. 315 ff.